is set. After TSMC is built in the United States, it is finally going to build a factory in Japan again.
TSMC CEO Wei Zhejia officially announced that TSMC has confirmed that it will invest in the construction of a special process wafer factory in Japan to provide 22nm and 28nm process production capacity, construction will begin in 2022 and enter mass production in 2024. Mainly produced for image sensors, automotive chips and other products.
This factory will receive payment and subsidies from the Japanese government, the specific construction amount and subsidy policy, etc., which have not been disclosed for the time being, but there have been reports that the Japanese government will subsidize at most half of the time.
Why did TSMC build a factory in Japan? Of course, it is the result of the active wooing of the Japanese government. In fact, over the years, Japan has been trying to win over TSMC and want TSMC to build factories in Japan. After all, TSMC is the absolute leader in the global chip foundry field, gaining 55% of the share.
Especially in the current shortage of chips, Japan's automobile industry has actually been greatly affected, and Sony 's CMOS chip has also been affected. Therefore, the demand for TSMC to build factories is naturally more urgent. TSMC has also wanted to build outside Taiwan Province due to energy shortage, so it is natural that it hits the point.
But everyone should note that TSMC has built a factory in the United States and produces advanced chips such as 5nm. When a factory was built in Japan, the chip produced is not an "advanced process", but a product with a circuit line width of 22/28 nanometers, which is called a "maturity process" in the industry.
According to the calculation that TSMC will produce 3nm chips next year, 28nm is considered to be 6 generations behind. For TSMC, it is already the technology 10 years ago.
So Japanese media Nikkei News said that Japan subsidized so much money to TSMC, but in the end TSMC produced 10 years ago in Japan. Is it worth it? After all, technology above 20nm is not unique to TSMC, and a large number of foundry companies can manufacture it.
However, from TSMC to Japan to build a 22/28nm factory, we may be able to judge that TSMC will also increase investment in mature processes in the next step to stabilize its market share, which is consistent with SMIC’s strategy.
This also means that SMIC, which focuses on mature processes, will face greater challenges in the future. The competition among chip foundries will be fully launched from advanced processes to mature processes.
